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60 where we came from

George Washington Wilkerson | Catherine D. Adams

On February 6, 1878, George Washington Wilkerson (1857–1917) of Black Bayou

Plantation married Catherine D. (Kittie) Adams (1860–1916), a 17-year-old

from Nashville. They were married at the Church Street Presbyterian Church

in Nashville, Tennessee.

In 1876, two years before they married, George Washington Wilkerson was

a boarding student living in the home of Catherine Adams’s mother, Ida Princella

Morton Adams (1822–1888). We have tuition receipts that show that he was

attending Vanderbilt Prep School in Nashville, Tennessee. Undoubtedly, this is

how he met Catherine Adams.

After his marriage, George Washington and his brother, Charles Lee, farmed

Black Bayou Plantation with their mother, Dorcas Elizabeth Cornelius Wilkerson

Shelby (1830–1897). In 1951 my mother got a letter1 from an 81-year-old black

woman who had worked for the Wilkerson family at Black Bayou. In the letter,

she gives her recollections of the Wilkersons at the plantation in their time.

In 1886, when the railroads came to the area, the Wilkersons incorporated

a Mississippi river railroad town called Huntington.2 It was just

across the river from Arkansas City, Arkansas. Huntington

no longer exists.

Over the next 10 years, the decision was made

(ultimately by the Mississippi Supreme Court)

to build a new levee several miles to the east and

thus effectively destroy 14 plantations, including

Black Bayou. No compensation was granted. With

a new levee completed in 1900, Black Bayou, like

Huntington, was lost to the Mississippi River.3

George Washington Wilkerson

as a young man.

George Washington Wilkerson

married Catherine Adams

in 1878.

George Washington and Catherine Adams Wilkerson had six children: two boys

and two girls who lived to maturity; and twin daughters who died in infancy in

1900. It appears from family records that they lived their lives in both Mississippi

and Nashville.

In the latter part of her life, Catherine Adams Wilkerson became ill* and moved

to Nashville. In 1916, at age 55, she died at the home of her brother-in-law, Francis

Neville (Frank) Boensch (1847–after 1910). She is buried in an unmarked grave in

his plot at Mount Olivet Cemetery. Frank Boensch was married to Catherine Adams

Wilkerson’s sister Josephine S. Adams Boensch (1850–1913).

After his plantation was lost, George Washington Wilkerson moved up the river

to Scott, Mississippi, a few miles away. He died in 1917 at age 59 and is buried

in the cemetery at Greenville, Mississippi. Unlike his wife, George Washington

Wilkerson’s burial site is marked by a quite prominent tombstone.4

my maternal grandfather 61 *She had a stroke in 1912.

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GEORGE WASHINGTON WILKERSON | CATHERINE ADAMSPAGES 60–61

1. RECOLLECTIONS OF BL ACK BAYOU BY A “COLORED NURSE”

In February 1951, my mother received a letter from Anne Lindsay (1870–after 1951),

who is described by Mother as a “colored nurse” for my mother’s father, Jefferson P.

Wilkerson (1878–1945), when he was a child at Black Bayou. Anne Lindsay, 81 years

old at the time of her letter, was living in North Little Rock, Arkansas.

Mrs. Kittie Bryan,

this annie yas man truly did nurse your deer father and my mother worked for Mrs.

Kittie, your granmother and your granfather Capt. George Wilkerson and Mr. Tommie

Wilkerson was the oldest son of my Mrs. Elizabeth Wilkerson. She was never married

before she married your granfather. Your granfather owned all of the place called

hunington from the River back five miles he owned about 300 colored people his house

had a fish pond up over the too storie and when the River come so close to the leave

the new levie was built. Then Mr. Charley Wilkerson the third son had his new house

built over on the other farm and made a little town it was belong to them and your

father. It was just 3 son and one girl she died young she was name miss irina Wilkerson.

The Wilkerson owned a large store on the old place and it was name Wilkerson

landing they never bought nothing on credit everything came cod. the kat adams

a big boat run from Memphis teen it was owen by your fathers mother, also the dean

adams a big boat, they sold them and Mr. Charley Wilkerson owen a big family boat

it is a large family of them.

thank you and God bless you and your family i am 81 years old as of gannuary.

The names mentioned in the letter above are identified below.

“Mrs. Kittie Bryan”— my mother, Catherine Cameron Wilkerson Bryan (1909–2002)

“Mrs. Kittie”— Catherine Adams Wilkerson (1860–1916), Mother’s grandmother

“Capt. George Wilkerson”— George Washington Wilkerson (1857–1917),

Mother’s grandfather

“Tommie Wilkerson”— Thomas Jefferson Wilkerson Jr. (1853–1875), Mother’s great-uncle

“Mrs. Elizabeth Wilkerson”— Dorcas Elizabeth Cornelius Wilkerson (1830–1897),

Mother’s great-grandmother

“Your grandfather” — Thomas Jefferson Wilkerson (1807–1868), she meant

great-grandfather

“Charley Wilkerson”— Charles Lee Wilkerson (1866–1924), Mother’s great-uncle

“Miss Irina Wilkerson”— Irene Wilkerson (1855–1856)

2. THE RISE AND FALL OF HUNTINGTON

In 1885, after 20 years of post–Civil War hardships, the Mississippi Delta began

to show signs of economic uplift. The railroads were coming to the Delta. They gave

competition to steamboats on the river and allowed faster travel to Memphis and

New Orleans. New towns had sprung up along the railroads; one of them was

Huntington. My grandfather Jefferson Pinckney Wilkerson Sr. (1878–1945) was

born there.

A railroad called the L.N.O.T. (Louisville New Orleans and Texas) ran north

and south, passing 10 miles east of Greenville, where the new town of Leland was

established. Leland was named for Leland Stanford (1824–1893), a railroad magnate

who founded Stanford University. It was decided to create a branch line from the

town of Leland to the Mississippi River, 22 miles away. The new rail line would

match up with the Iron Mountain Railroad that ended at the Mississippi River at

Arkansas City, Arkansas. On the Mississippi side of the river was Wilkerson

Landing on the family’s plantation property.

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In 1886 Elizabeth Cornelius Wilkerson Shelby (1830–1897) and her two sons,

George Washington Wilkerson (1857–1917), then 29 years old, and Charles Lee

Wilkerson (1866–1924) (20 years old), created at Wilkerson Landing an incorporated

town called Huntington, at a site they named Huntington Point. Both the town

and the point were named for Collis P. Huntington (1821–1900), a railroad baron

who owned the L.N.O.T. railroad. At Huntington a railroad incline was built to

move the trains down the bank of the Mississippi River and onto a railroad ferry.

The ferry carried the trains across the river to another railroad incline on the

Arkansas side of the river.

Huntington, unfortunately, prospered for only a few years. In 1890 the high

waters of the Mississippi River broke the levee at Huntington, and the railroad

incline was washed away into the river. After the levee was relocated in 1900,

massive caving over the years caused the Mississippi River to move east of the old

site of the town of Huntington. Today that site is actually located on the Arkansas

side of the river.

3. BL ACK BAYOU PL ANTATION IS LOST

After the 1890 Mississippi levee break at Huntington, it was recommended

that a new levee be constructed several miles to the east of the present one. It was

a proposition that would have the effect of destroying 14 plantations (including

Black Bayou), as well as the town of Huntington.

Coincidentally, my maternal grandfather, John Malcolm Montgomery (1841–1910),

was a member of the levee board at the time that relocation of the levee was being

considered. He voted against it.

However, for the next 10 years, the issue was fought in the courts and concluded by

the Mississippi Supreme Court. It was finally decided that “for the good of the many

over the few,” a new levee would be built farther back from the river. Black Bayou

would be lost and no compensation would be awarded.

The new levee, completed about 1900, was called The Huntington Short Line.

Ironically, The Huntington Short Line begins at a place called Mound Landing, the

exact point where the Mississippi River levee collapsed at the beginning of America’s

greatest river flood, the 1927 flood.

There is still today a family cemetery on an Indian mound at the site of Black Bayou

plantation. My great-great-grandparents Thomas Jefferson Wilkerson (1807–1868)

and Elizabeth Cornelius Wilkerson

Shelby (1830–1897), along with two of

their children, are buried there. Peter

Wilkerson (1782–1859) is possibly

there also.

The Wilkerson family continued to

own their plantation land well after

1900, but it was no longer farmable.

It was simply an overgrown, abandoned

flood plane. It is now owned by a

private hunting club.

This photograph, taken

by my cousin Princella

Wilkerson Nowell, was found

in my mother’s records.

The tombstone marks the

grave of Thomas Jefferson

(Tommie) Wilkerson

(1853–1875), my great-great-

uncle, who died at age 22.

He is George Washington

Wilkerson’s older brother.

The marker still stands

at the site of Black Bayou

Plantation.

GEORGE WASHINGTON WILKERSON | CATHERINE ADAMSPAGES 60–61

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4. THE FINAL RESTING PL ACES OF GEORGE WASHINGTON WILKERSON

AND CATHERINE ADAMS WILKERSON

Catherine Adams Wilkerson (1860–1916) and George Washington Wilkerson

(1857–1917) died in the years of 1916 and 1917, respectively. She was 55 years old and

he was 59 years old. Apparently they were not living together in their latter years.

Catherine Adams Wilkerson died in Nashville. She is buried in Nashville at

the Mount Olivet cemetery plot of Frank N. Boensch, her brother-in-law. We do not

know when or why she returned to Nashville. Below is a copy of her interment

record at the cemetery. There is no tombstone.

This document mistakenly says

Katherine Ann Wilkerson instead

of Catherine Adams Wilkerson.

George Washington Wilkerson died in 1917

at age 59, not age 58, as reported in his obituary.

He is buried in the Greenville, Mississippi,

cemetery. His tombstone is pictured below.

GEORGE WASHINGTON WILKERSON | CATHERINE ADAMSPAGES 60–61

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